1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for generating reports concerning provisioning and inventorying of telecommunication services.
2. Related Art
Companies offering telecommunications services, such as landline telephone, wireless telephone, Internet or other services, typically maintain tremendous databases concerning the provisioning and inventorying of the services that they provide. For landline telephone services, for example, such a database typically includes, for each assigned telephone number, the name of the customer to which the number is assigned, the terminal location to which the services are provided, the features associated with the number (such as, for example, speed dialing, call waiting, caller identification, call forwarding and the like), and other information necessary to effectively administer and manage services provisioning.
Typically, there is a hierarchical structure to the way the telephone numbers in a telecommunication company's database are organized. For example, telephone numbers assigned to geographically proximate locations are typically given the same first three digits and grouped into an exchange; all exchanges serviced by the same switch are grouped into a wire center; and wire centers in the same region (such as, for example, the Southwestern United States) are grouped into catalogues.
Routinely, those administering the provisioning of telecommunication services must access the stored data so that it may be reviewed. Such a task is conventionally accomplished by generating a report which recalls the data and presents it in a format that is readily understandable. For example, an administrator may desire a report which sets forth all of the telephone numbers in a given exchange that have subscribed for a given feature in a given exchange, such as express dialing in the exchange designated by the numbers “978” of area code “813”.
Such a report, as might be expected, is generated by specialized software which reviews the data looking for those numbers that fit the specified parameters, and compiles and outputs a resultant listing.
Conventionally, such report-generating software is text-based, and is run on mainframe systems, with a different mainframe dedicated to and accessing a database for each catalogue. Thus, for a large telecommunications company that provides services in multiple catalogues throughout the country, a separate report must be generated by each mainframe, if a company-wide result is desired. Also, conventional report-generating software can only provide a report on an on-demand type basis, in response to a user request, and does not offer the flexibility of being able to schedule reports for automatic generation.
There is a need, therefore, for a method and system that allows reports to be generated based upon the data of multiple catalogues, and in accordance with a pre-defined schedule, as well as on-demand.